9 Dec 2015

Airport seeks owners of abandoned Boeings

12:44 pm on 9 December 2015

A search is underway for the owners of three Boeing 747s that officials at Malaysia's main airport say have been left unclaimed.

Officials at Kuala Lumpur airport have taken out a newspaper ad which said if the owners failed to collect the aircraft within 14 days "we reserve the right to sell or otherwise dispose of the aircraft".

It said fees for landing and parking were also owed.

An airport official was quoted as saying they had tried to contact the jets' last known owners.

"I don't know why they are not responding. There could be many reasons. Sometimes it could be because they have no money to continue operations," Zainol Mohd Isa, general manager of Malaysia Airports, told AFP.

He added that in the past decade a few other planes, mostly smaller aircraft, have been abandoned, with one that was left in the 1990s eventually being bought and turned into a restaurant in a Kuala Lumpur suburb.

Officials say if no payment is received by 21 December, the planes will be auctioned off or sold for scrap to recoup the outstanding charges.

- BBC / AFP